Travel, Family, News and a Public Forum for Self-Aggrandizement

Twice Baked Englishman – Edward Wightman 1566-1612

We’ll be heading to England this summer (2010), so I decided it might be fun to trace an ancestor back to the town where he or she originated and pay the town a visit. I broke out the genealogical charts my mother made and began the search. The Pryor line currently peters out in 1818, still in America, so I turned to other family charts. I noticed the Rathbone chart (on my mother’s side) was one of the most complete. One of the family lines ran all the way to the edge of the chart and in the final entry I saw the words I was looking for “John Wightman, .b 1598 Burton-On-Trent, England”. But this particular family line didn’t end at the edge of the chart and there was one additional generation written into the margin. The name was Edward Wightman 1566-1612 and beside his name were the words “Burned at the stake”. I smiled. This was my kind of ancestor. Here’s what I found out about him:

The story begins with James I, king of England, a monarch who considered himself a learned scholar of theology. (He had been dubbed “The wisest fool in Christendom”) He was the eldest son of Mary Queen of Scots, the very same Mary who was beheaded by order of Elizabeth I for “Treason”, which really meant she was a threat to the throne. Mary had strong Catholic support in Scotland, England and abroad, while Elizabeth was backed by protestants. The protestants, won this round, but James was obviously born into a turbulent time, a time when a King had to tread delicately through a minefield of religious beliefs. James’ way of dealing with this danger was to become an expert on the topic of Christianity. He even wrote several books on the subject. He took an intellectual approach to theology and had strong opinions as to what was, and was not, valid Christian doctrine. (Ever hear of the King James Bible? That’s him.) Edward Wightman, my ancestor would one day find himself in conflict with the strongly held beliefs of the King.

Edward Wightman was a devout and passionate man. Obstinate was a word sometimes used to describe him. He was a Baptist minister and a successful businessman. The late 16th century was a highly superstitious time throughout most of the western world and it was generally accepted by scholars and clergy alike that things like witches and demonic possession really, truely existed. These superstitions would have a chilling influence on Edward one day in 1596 when he was summoned to help with a boy who had begun to exhibit symptoms of writhing, convulsions and dialogs with invisible devils. In one of the most unusual, and well documented, demonic possession cases ever recorded in England, 13 year old Thomas Darling was thought to be possessed by not one, but two demons. Considering that Edward and all who witnessed the event believed deeply that this was an actual demonic possession, it must have been a truly frightening experience.

“His countenance was strangely disfigured, his mouth set wide open, & sometime drawne awrie, his face turned backward, and his armes and shoulders thrust out of ioynt”

For days the boy shook and shouted, fell into trances, then leapt up pointing a threatening finger at the men around him. He at one point wept, claiming he was in the presence of a beautiful angel, but later, with his eyes closed, snatched a bible from the hands of one of his attendants and tore it in half. The “demons inside him” at one point threatened to leave the boy’s body and possess someone else in the room. This threat was likely taken very seriously by the uneasy observers. The boy vomited and convulsed violently and was said to have walked on his hands and feet. If any of this is starting to ring familiar; a 13 year old child possessed by demons, faces turning backwards, vomiting, shaking beds and exorcists, it’s compellingly similar to the 1973 movie that scared the living crap out of everyone who saw it. This despite the fact everyone knew that it was nothing more than actors reading a script. I can’t begin to imagine the effect this event had on a group of superstition clergymen in late 16th century England, where Witch burning was still an acceptable, if not encouraged practice.
In the moments the boy was lucid, he prayed desperately for relief:

“I charge thee in the name of the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost to get thee from mee, & come no more at me”

But the boy’s prayers went unanswered for many long and grueling hours. The boy eventually recovered, but Edward Wightman was forever changed by the experience. He began to doubt many of the tenants of Christian doctrine and openly dismissed the Holy Trinity as a fabrication. No doubt he was influenced by the unanswered prayers to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit made by Thomas Darling. Over the next decade he wrote volumes about his new beliefs and preached them publically, often to the chagrin of the other local clergy.

As his beliefs deviated more and more radically from what was religiously acceptable, he eventually came to the attention of Bishop Richard Neile, the Archbishop of York. The Bishop, after hearing of Edwards’s radical opinions, arrested him and brought him to London. It’s been hinted that Edward may have at this point been suffering from delusions and that the cause of his radical change in beliefs was nothing more than a bout with mental illness, but there is little evidence to back this up. While in custody, Edward freely wrote a detailed statement of his beliefs which was to be delivered to King James himself. Edward believed so strongly in his persuasiveness and the validity of his beliefs, he felt confident the king would quickly change his views. He was tragically mistaken. The king was not pleased with Edwards writing, not pleased at all. Edward’s beliefs directly conflicted with those of King James and such a conflict could not be tolerated.

King James personally ordered that Edward be tried for heresy. He was returned to Lichfield, where he remained jailed while preparations were made for his trial. While in custody, he became even more obstinate and began frequent and loud “blaspheming” toward his captors, something that didn’t much help his case.

Edward was tried and convicted of heresy and sentenced to be burned at the stake. The order for Edwards’s execution was written by King James himself and has managed to survive the centuries. Here are some excerpts:

“The King to the sheriff of our city of Litchfield, Greeting…”

“…upon the wicked heresies of Ebion, Cirinthus, Valintian, Arrius, Macedonius, Simon, Magnus, of Manes, Manichees, Photinus, and of the Anabaptists, and other arch-heriticks; and moreover of other cursed opinions, belched by the instance of Satan, excogitated and here to forunheard of; the aforesaid Edward Wightman… the aforesaid wicked crimes, heresies and other detestable blasphemies and errors, stubbornly and perniciously, knowingly and maliciously, and with a hardened heart, published, defended and dispersed, by definite sentence of the divine father, with the consent of divines, learned in the law aforesaid, justly, lawfully and canonically, against the said Edward Wightman… stands adjudged and pronounced a heretick, and therefore as a diseased sheep out of the flock of the Lord, lest our subjects he do infect by his contagion, he hath decreed to be cast out, and cut off…”

“We command thee that thou cause the said Edward Wightman, being in thy custody, to be committed to fire in some publick and open place below the city aforesaid, for the cause aforesaid before people; and the same Edward Wightman in the same fire cause really to be burned in destation of said crime, and for the manifest example of other Christians, that they may not fall into the same crime”

So on March 8, 1612 the public square of the town of Lichfield was prepared for his burning. In point of fact, this was not necessarily a death sentence. Edward was told by Bishop Neile that if he recanted his beliefs and signed the necessary documents, he would not be burned. Edward obstinately refused. The next morning he was dragged to the public square, tied to a stake, surrounded with wood and set ablaze. A crowd of several hundred had gathered to watch. As the flames licked his flesh he began shouting loudly, something not wholly unexpected one would presume, but his shouts were interpreted by some as a recant. The sheriff leapt forward and cut him loose, allowing him to escape from the flames. He had some painful burns, but was alive.

Edward was returned to the jail, where he was presented with documentation to sign recanting his heretical views. Edward carefully read them over, but surprised everyone by refusing to sign them. They gave him a few days to recover and then presented the documents to him again. He again refused to sign, despite the fact they assured him they would complete the burning next time. This went on for three weeks, which would seem to indicated they really didn’t relish the idea of burning a man alive and wanted to provide every opportunity to prevent it.

Finally, on April 11th 1612, he was taken back to the public square:

“[Wightman] was carried again to the stake where feeling the heat of the fire he again would have recanted, but for all his crying the sheriff told him he should cost him no more and commanded faggots to be set to him whence roaring, he was burned to ashes.”

It is said that to his last breath he died blaspheming.

Edward Wightman has the distinction to be the last man in England to die in such a manner for heresy. After his death his son John emigrated from England to Rhode Island where, as luck would have it, Edward Wightman’s genetic material was passed along to his American descendents, including yours truly.